Tutor: Ángela Cano, Ros Bennett
Date: Monday 17th June 2024, Tuesday 18th June 2024, Wednesday 19th June 2024, Thursday 20th June 2024, and Friday 21st June 2024
Time: 09:30 - 17:30
Cost: £395
Location: Classroom

This five-day intensive course introduces flowering plant families to committed amateurs, undergraduates, graduates, and professionals. The aim is to develop an understanding of the evolution and systematics of the major plant families and the practical skills needed when approaching the identification of plant material. Teaching is through a combination of practical sessions and lectures covering exemplars of major flowering plant families, with an emphasis on those of North Temperate regions. The course makes extensive use of plant material and the living collections across the Botanic Garden and includes a visit to the University’s Herbarium, housed in the Sainsbury Laboratory.

Tutor: Ros Bennett
Date: Tuesday 9th July 2024 and Wednesday 10th July 2024
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £135
Location: Classroom

Our gardens are full of flowers that originated in the Mediterranean, their colours and scents reminding us of sun-baked hillsides, resonating with the ringtones of cicadas. With the increasing reality of global warming, these beautiful and fascinating plants are beginning to gain more than a toehold in the naturalised flora of southern Britain. The theoretical part of this two-day course will look at the full global distribution of the Mediterranean flora but will focus predominantly on the Mediterranean basin itself. We will consider the benefits and constraints of the Mediterranean climate and the remarkable and varied adaptations adopted by the plants that have evolved to cope with it. In addition, we will recognise the role played by many key Mediterranean species in the origins and development of western society. Our focus will be the flora of the Mediterranean Basin with reference to specific locations.

Tutor: Nathan Smith
Date: Monday 9th September 2024 and Tuesday 10th September 2024
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £135
Location: Classroom

An introductory course to the science behind fungi. Covering fungal biology and fungal ecology, the course will also examine the wider cultural impact of fungi in art, music, and religion. Participants will be taught what makes a fungus, the fundamentals of fungal identification, and introduced to some of the key debates in mycology today. They will also be guided to available resources and local groups should they wish to continue their fungal adventures.

Tutor: Gwenda Kyd
Date: Wednesday 18th September 2024
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £35
Location: Classroom


Join chemist and Bach flower remedy practitioner Gwenda Kyd to explore the benefits of a plant-rich diet. Plants are a very important source of food. This half-day workshop explores the benefits that plants add to our food and drinks – colour, flavour, and texture, as well as nutrients and potentially beneficial medicinal compounds. We will also look at why some plants are popular foods and others less so and identify some of the foods which have attracted the attention of criminals. Weather permitting, we'll see some of these food and drink plants growing in the Garden. By the end of the morning, you’ll never look at the plants on your plate or in your cup in quite the same way again!

Tutor: Karen van Oostrum
Date: Tuesday 24th September and Wednesday 25th September 2024
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £135
Location: Classroom

This lively, informative, hands-on course offers complete beginners a relaxed introduction to the world of botany. With plenty of plant material to look at in the classroom, we will investigate the vegetative (leaves, stems, roots) and reproductive (flowers, fruits, and seeds) parts of flowering plants, and start to understand the roles that they perform. Outside in the Garden we can visit the Rising Path to consider the domination of the angiosperms (flowering plants) in the broader context of the whole plant kingdom, and we will make use of the plant collections to explore plant adaptations and the variety of flower forms. There will be time to explore how to use a field guide, with the opportunity to practice and develop your own plant identification skills.

Tutor: Ali Ashby
Date: Monday 21st October 2024
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £70
Location: Classroom

Join Dr Ali Ashby, fungal molecular biologist, on an exploration of the fungal kingdom. Fungi are vital to life on Earth as we know it. Although once grouped with plants, fungi are now recognised as a separate, and arguably one of the largest, kingdom of organisms, with over 5 million species estimated. From microscopic single celled yeasts to one of the largest living organisms on our planet, fungi can be found in just about every habitat on Earth, from the Arctic to the tropics, in the air we breathe, in seas and oceans, in the home and garden – and even as part of the human microbiome. Fungi form beneficial partnerships with plants and animals, they are our planet’s best recyclers, yet they can cause disease and devastate crops. We use fungi in our everyday lives, in food products, as medicines, to help clean up the environment, as building materials and packaging, in fashion and in cleaning products. Fungi will be essential as we move towards a more sustainable future. After all, we could not and would not survive on Earth without them.

Tutor: Ángela Cano
Date: Monday 18th November 2024 and Tuesday 19th November 2024
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £135
Location: Classroom

Join our Assistant Curator, Dr Ángela Cano, on this two-day introduction to tropical botany. Travelling back in time, you will learn about the dynamic borders of the tropical region, with a focus on the fossil record. You will then study current patterns of geographic distribution of plant diversity on Earth, discovering that it is not homogeneous, but dramatically different between continents. You will fly over the tropical belt to understand which regions have the highest species richness, known as “biodiversity hotspots”, and face the strongest threats. Ángela will then discuss the main factors that threaten this biodiversity and the local and ex situ efforts that are in place to counteract their effects. The second part of the course will focus on plant systematics – understanding how plants have evolved, and how taxonomists have classified them. You will focus on different tropical plant groups, starting with non-flowering plants, such as mosses, ferns and conifers and then briefly cover the most representative tropical angiosperm families.

Tutor: Ros Bennett
Date: Wednesday 27th November 2024 and Thursday 28th November 2024
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £135
Location: Classroom


In winter, when there are very few flowers around and most of our native plants have lost their leaves, it is a wonderful opportunity to focus our attention on the conifers – most of which are evergreen and still bear cones. The British flora is remarkably poor in diversity of native conifers, but many introduced species form a major feature in our landscape. And here in the Botanic Gardens at Cambridge we are fortunate to have the opportunity to study a fine collection of this magnificent group of trees. This course is suitable for beginners, including more experienced botanists who have not yet tackled conifers (or tried and failed!) and all those who love trees. No previous knowledge is assumed.